Travel Distance Judgment: An Environmental Distance Information Cognitive Processing Perspective

A consumer makes travel distance judgment to determine the place to visit. Stores that gain favorable travel distance judgment could gain access to a large volume of customer base. Travel distance judgment is often made with the aid of technologies, such as the mobile location-based service (LBS). In the present research-in-progress, we build on the human’s environmental distance information cognitive processing model to propose how the travel distance information and visual geospatial information jointly influence a consumer’s travel distance judgment. We posit that the combination of direct-distance travel information and destination visual reachable geospatial information (2D-map) could result in favorable travel distance judgment; likewise, the combination of estimated travel time information and destination visual opaque geospatial information (3D-map) could result in good travel distance judgment. Empirical validations on the propositions are also proposed. The article ends with a discussion on potential implications for research and practice.